rojse's Anime

"Reign: The Conqueror" is a about Alexander the Great's life and ascenscion to power, and bears very little resemblance to either real life or the mythology created around Alexander the Great. If I can think of one single thing that I enjoyed or thought was decently handled in an anime, I'll at least give it a 2/10. I can't think of any such thing for "Reign: The Conqueror", from the opening to the close. The three-minute opening is awful - cheesy romance music from a character barely met in the show over scenes of battle and slaughter. The animation quality is terrible, a mix of terrible CGI with ugly and nonsensical animated character designs. In spite of the fact that the show is about one of the brightest ever military strategists, there is no evidence of planning of logistics or military manoeuvers, strategising, or training soldiers. Do not watch.

***** As with the first Gaiden series, "A Hundred Billion Stars", you get a watered-down version of LOGH - the characters are less developed, and the stories don't have the same scope, intelligence and grandeur of the main series. Not for a moment am I suggesting the series is bad, mind you - it's quite good, but it just doesn't reach the lofty bar the main series set for itself. Ratings for each series as follows: // Spiral Labyrinth ***** // Those Who Revolt - Reinhard, a newly-sworn officer on a flagship in a small fleet narrowly escapes an Alliance trap and must pull off a desparate escape with a damaged spacecraft to get back to base. 9/10. // The Duellist - Reinhard steps in to intervene in a duel of one of his sisters' friends but what is meant to be a routine duel may turn deadly due to court intrigues. 7/10. // Survivors - Reinhard must infiltrate enemy territory in a single ship to prevent a military secret from reaching the Alliance - 9/10. // Third Tiamat Battle - Reinhard takes part in the third Tiamat battle, and manages to turn an drawn-out stalemate into a victory. Considering these are the last-released OVA episodes in the LOGH anime franchise, this arc is rather underwhelming - the story arc is just two episodes instead of four, there have been similar plots previous to this in the Gaiden series, and the battle is merely a minor one in terms of overall strategic value, and military or plot significance. However, the ending of the last story arc does seem like a fitting end to the series as a whole.

In a world where everyone can manipulate crystals by thought, which power everything from vehicles to giant mech called Golems, Rygart is one of the rare individuals who cannot use this ability at all. He is called upon by his king because he might be the key to being able to control an ancient golem that has been unearthed. I love what I've seen of Break Blade so far - the whole thing is animated beautifully, the mech... er, Golems, deliberately look old, battered and and worn, which is a nice change from the normal shiny mech designs present in most anime in this vein, and the story is well-written and interesting, too. It also knows the tropes that are often used in mecha anime stories, and it manages to use them well enough by making their use legitimate through explaining their inclusion in the plot of the show itself. There are minor plot flaws occasionally, but I love how this series is going - I can't wait to see how this turns out.

(Watched 57 episodes) A serial killer is loose in Germany in the mid-nineties, after the fall of Communism and the Berlin Wall, and only a single vigilante on the run from the law is able to stop him. Such a summation doesn’t do justice to “Monster” at all, though – it makes the show seem like simple, mindless action fare when the exact opposite is the case – the premise and back story of the show is built upon slowly and deliberately, little pieces slowly revealed, without feeling overly padded, and uses both suspense and tension quite well. There are also some very deep and dark themes here, and some ideas present that don’t get examined often in anime. The masterpiece of this show, though, is the serial killer itself, who, in spite of making no threats and rarely using direct violence against his victims, manages to exude an aura of malevolence that places him in a realm far beyond reach of any clichéd villain. Oh, and the animation is gorgeous, too, particularly the care in creating unique and memorable character designs.

"Polar Bear's Polar Bear's Café" is an anime sitcom, set in a world where animals talk, live and work alongside humans. Polar Bear runs the titular café of the show, and it is his life, and the lives of his most regular patrons that form the basis of both the stories and the humour of the show. The animation is quite fluid and well-detailed (check out how detailed the animal animations and drawings are), and the comedic aspect of the anime is extremely funny, and the show constantly changes how it derives its humorous content. This is well worth watching, even if you do not normally enjoy and appreciate anime comedy.

(Watched 02 episodes) So far, Bokurano doesn't quite work in any of the ways it should. The mecha combat lacks drama and action, there are far too many characters to follow and none have been developed in any meaningful way, and the dark and grim storyline feels far too contrived and forced to be convincing.

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Travel back in time (and maybe have your gender swapped) to seven different periods of Japanese history, all from the comfort of your couch.― The history of Japanese civilization is expansive, predating the Common Era by 10,000 years (the Jomon period). There's much more ground to cover compared to what kids get in U.S. history classes in high school, which rarely cover anything before the Boston T...

Junji Ito's death-stench horror gets the deluxe treatment with a new hardcover omnibus, but the subject matter might not work for everyone.― Junji Ito is inarguably one of the masters of horror manga, utilizing both horror (physical revulsion) and terror (psychological reaction) to create gut-churning tales of the world gone mad. To a degree, he carries this out in his two-volume series Gyo from 200...

Voice actor/director/professional Dungeons & Dragons player Liam O'Brien returns to the podcast after a 5-year hiatus to discuss his roles in Fate/Zero and Sailor Moon, along with the landscape for anime voice acting now and what it's like to be Gollum.― ANNCast Episode 234: Podcastoes O'Brien Get the Flash Player to see this player. Voice actor/director/professional Dungeons & Dragons player Liam ...

If you went to an anime convention this summer or have used the internet lately, you may notice anime fans seem to have fallen in love with Steven Universe. Why? Because the show loves them right back.― If you've been to an anime convention in the past year, you've probably seen colorful, gem-studded cosplay like this filling the hallways. Photo credit links: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom...

If you've got questions for the director of the high-flying fantasy series The Pilot's Love Song, we've potentially got answers for you!― We've been given the opportunity to interview The Pilot's Love Song director Toshimasa Suzuki, and we need your help! NISA, who will be releasing the fantasy action drama The Pilot's Love Song on bluray September 22nd, asked for fan questions for Mr. Suzuki, whos...

Bee-Train's 2001 girls-with-guns classic returns on Blu-Ray, and holds up surprisingly well, despite some mediocre animation.― Not all older series deserve the Blu-Ray treatment. For some it is because the show just isn't as iconic as people might like to think, while for others it's because the quality was never BD worthy in the first place. Noir, fortunately, does hold up well enough that its tran...

Egypt Arc is JoJo in peak condition, as memorable and engaging an adventure as you could hope for. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is back.― When we last left our heroes, they'd just arrived on the shores of Egypt, escaping the literal jaws of defeat in order to finally save Jotaro's mother. The journey there had been a lengthy and sometimes inconsistent one, with their various adventures indeed being plen...

The creator of the hit manga, recently adapted into a popular anime series, talks about her inspirations, how she got her start, and what it's like to watch your manga become a TV show.― As you might guess from the story, the main character of the story is a high school roughneck named Ryu Yamada. Yamada meets cute, quiet, and studious Urara Shiraishi, who is his complete opposite in almost every wa...